“How can I say no to that wonderful request?” With a shake of his head, Tanner headed for the nurses’ station.
Anxiously, I raked my fingers through my hair and glared back at the room where Logan was. What the hell was taking them so long? Dropping into one of the hardback chairs, I turned my glare to the plain white ceiling.
What seemed like hours later, the door to Logan’s exam room opened. I shot up from the seat as an attendant wheeled her out and past me.
Her eyes were closed. She appeared far too pale. Her head wound had been covered by dressing, and her wrist was wrapped in a compressed bandage.
“Logan?” I touched her good hand, but she didn’t respond. I forced out through gritted teeth, “How is she?”
The male nurse cast me an even look. “Talk to the doc. She’s being admitted.”
Heart in my throat, I spun to the dusky-skinned doctor emerging from the room.
“You family?” he asked.
“Her boyfriend.”
Doctor Singh as his name tag indicated, nodded. “I gave her something for the pain. It’s an overnight stay, a precaution in case of a concussion. She took a really nasty knock on the head. Has some bruising in the chest area. A fractured wrist. If all goes well, she should be good to go home tomorrow.”
“Thanks, doc.” I hurried to catch up with the nurse and Logan.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ila
Familiar hands shook me awake. Usually, I wouldn’t mind Max intruding on my dreams, but my achy body protested along with my pounding head. Ugh. “Please, Max, I feel so tired…” I moaned. “Let me sleep. We can have sex later…”
Soft laughter, then lips brushed mine. “Come on, sweet girl, let me see those pretty eyes for a minute.”
Grumbling, I fought to open my eyelids. It felt like lead weighed them down. Then I met the beautiful lake-green eyes of the man who held my heart. “Maaax,” I breathed on a dreamy sigh, petting his face. “You’re so pretty…”
A chuckle. “How do you feel?”
Hmmm…How did I feel?Frowning, I focused my blurry gaze to the white wall behind him and the night-darkened window. I blinked in confusion. Then everything came sweeping back. The last couple of hours seemed surreal, as if they had happened to someone else. “I’m in the hospital.”
“Yes. They’re keeping you overnight for observation. Just a precaution. How do you feel?” he repeated.
I winced, my chest hurting as I took a deep breath. “I was prodded, poked, and examined, I’m grateful I’m still breathing.”
He sat on the chair close to the bed, picked up my hand in both of his, and pressed his brow to our clasped hands. His swollen knuckles were an ugly purple.
My heart faltered. “Max, your hand!”
“It’s not important. Christ, Logan, if anything had happened to you—”
“I’m fine…” There was something important I wanted to say. I struggled through the fog in my head… Right. His father. “I’m sorry for what your father said. It’s not true. You know how I feel about you.”
His lips on my fingers, Max looked up. Desolation flashed in his green eyes, and just as fast, a cool facade replaced it. He was protecting himself. I knew that because I’d done the same thing so many times.
“It’s okay. I knew what I was getting into when I accepted your deal. You kept to your end. I didn’t.” He pushed to his feet and paced to the window and stared out into the night as if unable to look at me. “It’s when the night traps me in the darkness, and I feel like I’m suffocating, then I look at you, and it all fades away.”
His voice was so low, I had to strain to hear him. My throat tightened. “Max—”
“No. Don’t say it. Just let me be with you. And when you feel it’s over…” Then his tight countenance morphed into one of utter determination. He cut me a heated glare. “Fuck that, I’m never letting you go. You are mine—” he broke off as a gray-haired nurse entered the room. His lips tightened.
Overwhelmed, my heart expanded with all the love I felt for him, but I didn’t want to do this in front of her. “Please, would you check his hand? He hurt it.”
The nurse glanced at Max as she put my bed upright. Her stern, professional mask slipped into feminine appreciation. I couldn’t blame her. Max was that gorgeous even when he looked as if he was about to snap out of his skin. Her gaze lowered to his fist resting on the sill. “Let me see that.”
